On Wednesday, Ankeny’s police chief explained why he felt it was necessary to have a SWAT-style raid on a Des Moines home on a search warrant related to a stolen credit card.

He said one of the people named in the warrant, 35-year old Richard Adair, has a history of drug use and was staying in a home where another person had a legal handgun. The chief argues, that made Adair a threat, even though Adair has no violent criminal history for more than ten years.

“I’m worried less about violent history as I do about the fact that people on methamphetamine are not real predictable,” Chief Gary Mikulec said.

Here’s what the chief did not say in the press conference – the victim of the credit card theft is a former Ankeny police officer who now teaches at the Iowa law enforcement academy.

Curtis Pote, who worked as an officer with the Ankeny police department for 12-years, called his former colleagues when his wife’s wallet was stolen. Pote, who didn’t want to go on camera, says he does not believe his case was given any special treatment because he is a former Ankeny officer.

In another development in this story, Justin Ross, the disabled veteran who lived in the home, has been charged with possession of narcotics with the intent to deliver. Ross’s attorney, who did not want to go on camera, says any drugs found in the home were not his clients, and questions why police did not arrest Ross immediately when the drugs were found.

We reached out to the judge who signed the warrant. She did not want to comment. Generally, judges do not have a say in how warrants are executed.

John

Up until now it didn’t make any sense that the Ankeny police would use so much force to invade a home in order to arrest a credit card thief. I have never heard of such a thing. I guess they use different rules when the victim is a former Ankeny police officer.

Walter Perry

How do you know what a normal method would be for executing search warrants? How do you know they haven’t used a swat team for other similar search warrants? Have you ever tried to arrest a person high on methamphetamine or worse yet, multiple people high on meth who have access to guns, knives, and spears like the one hanging on the wall in the video? It seems logical to me to take precautions so that no one gets hurt. Good job Ankeny Police.

Luke

Because its common knowledge what should constitute force and what is a frivolous excuse to be a thug. If they had, those other illegal unreasonable home invasions would have come to light. Yes and detain them but there was ZERO EVIDENCE of anything like that. Take precautions? Yes. Act like a moronic trigger happy Charlie Bronson? NO. Pathetic self embarrassing job, hypocrite Ankeny badged thugs.

AZRanger

Walter, you might want to quit drinking the fascist kool-aid! It is obvious what is going on here. It does not take a rocket scientist to understand that these thugs used the wrong approach in investigating this non-crime. I am sick and tired of abusive behavior on the part of the police!

ConcernedAnkenyCitizen

Ankeny police have a history of overstepping their bounds. My stepbrother was an Ankeny cop and he was fired for trying to settle a dispute with words rather than using force. I hope this whole thing goes to the Iowa Supreme Court and they have to fire the whole corrupt department.

It’s either that, or it’s time to stop paying their salaries. Our tax dollars pay their salary and the police are here to protect and serve. Not act like they are in charge of a police state. It’s time for residents to stand up to their police departments and remind them of how things are actually supposed to work.

We had an incident with a somewhat unstable woman in a parking lot in Ankeny, the police were more unstable and frightening than she was. One even gave us a phony business card to avoid being identified later.

Of course they gave this case special treatment because the victim was a former Ankeny cop. They always take care of their own. As for Justin being brought up on drug charges, the police are obviously trying to divert attention from their excessive use of military force. The police were wrong, they were caught on video and they know it.

Walter Perry

It’s good to see police treating financial crimes seriously. Many criminals have learned to commit crimes such as credit card fraud and check fraud instead of robbing gas stations because they make more money and the get less time in jail when they get caught. They are dirt bag criminals and drug addicts who cause honest consumers to pay more for what we buy because the stores are passing the losses on to the customer.

William Denison

Channel 13 out phishing. Shame, shame. Is channel 13 saying that preferential treatment was given to this case? Are they saying it was handled any different than any other case? If you want to make allegations, come right out and make them, don’t go on a phishing expedition to sensationalize something, unless of course the management at WHO TV has an agenda….

Walter Perry

I would say they have an agenda. They have to try and make up for putting out such an inaccurate garbage story the first time. They are still printing inaccuracies. Neither his attorney or the reporter mention that methamphetamine was found on Justin Ross. Read the warrant on file at the court clerk’s office. I guess the reporter doesn’t want to waste his time actually looking for facts. Isn’t he the same reporter who claimed none of the people had criminal records which Iowa Courts Online shows they do.

Red

Of course WHO TV has an agenda, they hate local police and are slanting the news to make it appear as though something shady happened. “A disabled veteran” who happened to have a bunch of drugs in the home and was carrying a weapon and had the interior and exterior of the home surveilled, as lots of drug dealers do. The victim called his “former co-workers” (also known as the police) to make a police report when he was the victim of a crime. Maybe this reporter wants the police to just suspend his case were his credit cards stolen and thousands of dollars stolen from him. Unbelievable how this story has been twisted by WHO TV and this reporter. House full of crooks who were caught, no one hurt (possibly because of the tactical team), and the media is pissed off. How about, for ONE time, blaming the criminal for the response instead of the police?

Kim

Kim

lol it cracks me up how so many just accept this type of behavior, remember the warrant was for a stolen credit card!!!! not for meth dealing, There was no need to bust in like this. the cops gave no time for the people to open the door..And now they are stating it was justified cause there was a gun inside? give me a break, what about the so called victim? A cop who was demoted for harassment against a female in the workplace, So kinda funny to me how they are saying all these people were bad people and had to be so cautious with them.Well the victim is not such a great guy either, they were probably giving him special treatment, cause he was a cop…

Al

William Denison

The thin blue line is alive and well here is Iowa. We have a bully govenor whos said nothing about this. Hes ok turning Iowa into a police state and having his storm troopers running amok doing favors for one another.

Kim

Thank God there are a few peoples comments that make sense on here. thanks William for knowing whats really happening,, Obviously a couple people posting have no clue and think its all roses and sunshine…

dennis

Exactly what does Pote’s past have anything to do with his wife being the victim of a crime now? Do you want everyone to continuously judge you by your past behavior? Looks like a lot of people holding others to a higher standard than they hold themselves.

Michael Barzinni

@The Rural Iowegian

Have you ever tried to get the police to do anything about your stolen wallet or a stolen purse?

Usually you get the blow-off. “Call your credit cards and cancel them, bring us the evidence of any transactions where the credit card fraud protection does not kick in, and if we have time — we’re very busy ya know — we may assign a financial crimes detective.” That’s what you get. I know. When my Wife’s purse was stolen we brought them information, and they certainly didn’t spend time getting surveillance video and digging into the case, much less mobilizing a dynamic entry team to serve a search warrant.

Its been puzzling to me why a crime of a couple thousand dollars magnitude was investigated and approach (including the search) as if it were a kidnapping or attempted murder. Now we know.

The main issue to my view is simply this: They caused more damage to an old lady’s house (she’s innocent even if her grandson is a dirt bag), they created risk of death an injury, all far far far out of proportion to the crime they were investigating. The reason is they were going to town for one of their own.

Lets see the last time a raid was ordered to execute a search warrant for a couple thousand dollars of credit card theft materials. I’ll bet it never happened before this particular case.

William Denison

John

Want to know why trolls are siding with the cops? Because there are government jobs for people to troll websites and take the side of government. Search “Cointel Pro”. Cha ching! The government is not on the side of the people. Wake up.

Walter Perry

I have noticed that other news outlets in DM haven’t given this much attention since both sides of the story came out but channel 13 can’t let go of their 15 minutes of fame. I have come to the conclusion that people who watch channel 13 are anti-police, anti – government, conspiracy theorists, who think that “the man” is out to get them. Go attend your pro marijuana rallies and complain about law and order while the police risk their lives to keep meth heads from stealing your property.

William Denison

Yea shame on Channel 13 for letting its veiwers have a outlet to speak up and live by the first amendment. What pro marijuana rallie are you talking about. I was unaware. Let me know. I love learning about all the new and wonderful ways cannabis is changing the world for the better. In fact I’m going to go and try and find some today instead of going to Hy Vee and buying a bottle for tonites party.